Part of me you carry
by callmesandy
Summary: Peter's contact picture came up on MJ's phone as Spiderman splayed out on a heap of dildos. He glared at her. She said, "What? It's a really funny picture of you." "It's not, that's not me," Peter said, indignantly. "Peter," MJ said. She took a deep breath. She seemed confident but also annoyed and a little upset. It was a lot of emotions to read all at once.


For the trope bingo spot sex toys. Title from Tom Petty's walls. Not mine and no profit garnered. Thanks a!

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Some asshole with a large concussive weapon shot Peter straight through the window of a shop. Peter landed on a display four feet into the store. It was about three seconds while he tried to breathe and looked around and saw he was lying on a bunch of dildos. That was funny, Peter thought, he wouldn't be allowed in the store as Peter but he could get knocked through the window in his Spiderman suit. Funny, Peter thought. He probably had another mild concussion. Ned was gonna send him more articles about CTE and make him watch that Will Smith movie. Again.

That was it, three seconds. Then he was out the window frame ready to beat some bad guy up.

Helpfully, Iron Man showed up two minutes later and then the whole thing wrapped up quick. "You didn't have to come, Mr. Stark, I got it."

"You always say that and half the time, it's actually true. That's really good, kid, that's progress," Tony said. "In this case, it was just easy. I'm mostly testing this new armor."

"Looks good," Peter said.

He went to bed and woke up a few hours later to his custom ring tone for Tony. It was an awesome One Direction song. Both a great song and something Tony thought was ridiculous. Peter fumbled for his phone and saw a picture of himself (in the suit) splayed out on a display of dildos. There was a large neon pink one right by his thigh. Peter groaned.

If it wasn't so obscene it would probably have replaced the one of him with the toilet paper on his foot as the picture they used on the news.

Two days later, he was at lunch at school with Ned and MJ. They were having a heated discussion about the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi. MJ didn't have a really strong opinion on anything except Alec Guiness being very cool about his contempt for the script of Star Wars. She felt it was a super important point.

On his way to class, he walked right next to MJ so when he remembered a story about Alec Guiness, he found the link and texted it to MJ. He looked over as the text came up on her phone.

His contact picture came up as Spiderman splayed out on a heap of dildos. He glared at her. She said, "What? It's a really funny picture of you."

"It's not, that's not me," Peter said, indignantly.

"Peter," MJ said. She took a deep breath. She seemed confident but also annoyed and a little upset. It was a lot of emotions to read all at once.

"MJ, it's not me," he said again. He could hear he was angry.

"Whatever," she said and sped up. They were going to the same class. Since he was actually Spiderman he could have gotten there first but he was in school. He didn't want people to know he was Spiderman.

He didn't want MJ to know.

When he got to class, MJ refused to look at him. He stopped trying to look at her about halfway through. Screw her, he thought. He immediately felt bad about it.

He went straight home. He realized he literally had no one to ask about this kind of stuff. Mr. Stark had never even tried to have a secret identity. Peter was the only idiot trying to be a hero with one. But he had every reason to do so. He was sixteen. He had family. Although so did Sam Wilson, and he was a hero. Except he was one on the run and right now all his family were being watched. Peter had heard Mr. Stark refer to both Ant-man and Hawkeye as having families. Ones they were back with on house arrest. Hawkeye had hidden his family away from everyone.

Aunt May had told Peter after she found out that he should keep his identity secret. It was too easy for people who didn't like Spiderman to find Peter living his life. He had high school and friends. He thought that included MJ.

She was probably his friend. Just because she was convinced he was Spiderman didn't mean she was going to tell anyone. She probably wouldn't betray him.

He had four texts from Ned, all continuations of his Obi-Wan argument. Peter texted Ned 'do you think MJ is trustworthy?'

Ned sent back four emojis communicating that he needed clarification.

Peter just called him. "Dude, I think MJ knows I'm, you know."

"Really? How could she? Oh, she's pretty smart. And she likes you, she's probably able to figure it out if anyone could," Ned said.

"You think it's that easy?"

Ned said, "Honestly? Probably. For MJ. I mean, she knows your schedule and she knows you and she sees you all the time. And doesn't see you. She's also completely trustworthy. If she knows, she would never tell anyone. She likes you."

"But it's unfair," Peter said.

"Really?"

"I don't know, I don't love it," Peter said. "I don't like it."

"You're being a jerk then," Ned said. "Just like you're wrong about Kenobi. I think we should rewatch those episodes of Clone War I've been referring to -"

"No way, I'm right," Peter said. "Definitely about the Obi-Wan thing. I'm sure the combination of those tumblr posts and that fanfic you read are very persuasive but, like, that's more of an emotional argument."

"Emotional argument doesn't mean bad argument, Peter, we're talking about art."

Peter got off the phone a half hour later. He started his homework and read the fanfic Ned had recommended at the same time. He could multitask. It was more like doing his homework until he got distracted, then reading a few paragraphs of the story and then back to his homework. He was making progress on both, though.

Then there was a knock on his door. He opened the door to MJ. She said, "Did you even look out the door to see who it was?"

"No, no," Peter said. "Whatever. What are you doing here?"

"You know why I'm here," MJ said. "Can I come in or are we gonna argue in hallway?"

"Are we gonna argue?" He held the door open and let her in.

"Where's May?"

"Work," Peter said. He closed the door.

MJ said, "First of all, this picture is hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. There are dildos next to your thigh that are thicker than your thigh." She held it up.

"Those are not thicker than Spiderman's thigh and you can see that in the pic. I mean, they're pretty big," Peter said.

"This picture is hilarious. Admit it." MJ was standing very close to him. She was taller than Peter, he liked that. His mom had been taller than his dad, too. Not that he was going to say that part out loud ever to MJ.

"It's hilarious," Peter said. He stepped back. "But it's not me."

MJ glared at him. Peter said, "If it were true that Spiderman was, like, some high school student that maybe you knew, they would have very good reasons to want to keep their identity secret. Thus, secret identity. That would be important to them."

MJ said, "Peter, are you trying to say your pronouns are they and them? Because I support that."

Peter said, "I'm trying to respect Spiderman's possible gender identity. My pronouns are he and him, though. But I don't know about Spiderman. Can't just assume their gender." He really had no idea how he'd gotten onto this path of conversation. He said, "I'm not Spiderman."

"I won't tell anyone. I haven't told anyone and I've known since DC," MJ said. "I can't believe you're being such an asshole about this."

"I'm not being an asshole. I'm not Spiderman."

MJ rolled her eyes. "If I went into your room right now, it would be obvious you were. You're being stupid."

"It wouldn't be," Peter said. "Obvious."

MJ didn't say anything. Peter took a deep breath. MJ was waiting, he could tell. "Okay, maybe," Peter said. "Maybe that's me."

"Duh," MJ said, leaning forward.

Peter said, "You said you wouldn't tell anyone."

"Duh," MJ said. "Why would I tell anyone? I don't want you to get hurt. You're my friend."

"Okay," Peter said. He flopped on the couch. "Do you want, should we hang out now? You came all the way over here. I don't really have food. I was gonna get delivery. Or Door Dash or something."

"Will Stark pay?"

"No," Peter said. "He doesn't pay for my food."

MJ said, "He should." Then she said, "I want pizza."

"Pizza it is," Peter said.

He went and got his laptop and his homework so he could get stuff done. MJ had brought her backpack so she took her books and laptop out. She said, "Put something on TV. Otherwise we might talk or something horrible."

"Well, do you have questions?" Peter was trying to surreptitiously read the fanfic. It was a real good story.

"No," MJ said. "You got bit by a spider, you're really strong and fast, and sticky, and you make the web stuff in your chemistry class which is so dumb."

"I make it at Mr. Stark's lab now. He's really into it," Peter said. He gave up on his homework and just straight up read the story. "He actually loves to collaborate. People think he's so arrogant but he's actually super cool."

"He's pretty fucking arrogant," MJ said. "But you're smarter than him and he likes that. That actually is cool. A lot of people get intimidated by people who are smarter than them. That's Flash's problem."

"I don't think that's Flash's problem," Peter said.

"He got into Midtown thanks to his parents' money and he knows it," MJ said. "He maybe could have gotten in on his own, but maybe not. Not like you or Ned."

"Or you," Peter said.

"Yeah, I am brilliant," MJ said.

They ate pizza and they did their homework. MJ recommended a bunch of other fics he could read once she caught him reading the one Ned had sent. It was pretty fun. "You really don't have any questions about the Spider stuff?" They were standing outside and MJ was waiting for her Uber. Mr. Stark was paying for that one. He'd given Peter an Uber account for emergencies. But Mr. Stark had a broad definition of emergency and Peter wasn't worried.

"I already know all that," MJ said. "I can't believe you didn't know that I would never hurt you. Not like that." She looked like she was actually upset. A little.

"I have a lot to worry about," Peter said.

"Not me," MJ said. She leaned into him and kissed his cheek. "Don't worry about me."

"Okay," he said as she got in the car. "Okay."


End file.
